The Musik Lounge

  A few weeks ago I ran an interview with a young producer, Ezroh, who hailed from Australia. In response to my question about his soundtrack to 2020 he mentioned quite a few projects, one of which was All News Is Good News by his fellow countrymen Surprise Chef . Upon only a brief listen I knew I was interested and had the record on the way. After sitting with that album I was convinced that something is going on in that country that must be explored. Daylight Savings by Surprise Chef This band is so on point! Today they release their follow up full length Daylight Savings (also soon to be en route - I don’t even need to hear it to know it’s a must cop). If you grew up on the likes of RZA, Pete Rock & Q-Tip production or labels like Staxx, Hi, Daptone, Capitol (of a certain time frame) this is music for you. It’s gorgeous, soul warming sounds perfect for the shift in seasons we are currently transitioning with. Surprise Chef lay down thick grooves for you to nod along too, ...

Sounds enter into our ears via so many directions these days, it can be hard to narrow them down, pick and choose which ones are worth more time. We can consume so much and still not even scratch the surface. But when you do catch something new and dive into it out of curiosity and piqued ears sometimes you are blessed with something new and worthy of the investment. Australian sounds have been floating into my ears recently via a multitude of sources, most of it lying closer to the jazz sounds flourishing worldwide at the moment, so when I read about Ezroh in an email from Alpha Pup I was instantly intrigued. Upon pressing play that intrigued turned into fascination. It was as if I had been transported back into time from the land down under. Here was a producer channeling those classic sounds that lured me into hiphop so many years ago and yet it wasn’t sounding like mimicry - just a digger chopping up old vinyl and hitting us with that boom bap. With only 2 projects to his (new) nam...